I think the OP wanted to talk non-doosra bowling finger spinners, hence left out Harby deliberately.

Lol at the underrating of Hauritz in this thread. Someone said there are three better spinners in Australia - name them please.

I'm not saying he's better than Swann or Harris, although I think he outbowled Swann in the Ashes. But to say that he's not deserving of comparison to them, or is clearly massively inferior is wrong imo.

And Aussie somehow got confused on the point of whether Hauritz deserved his spot ahead of the potential fourth specialist quick in the Australian team with the question of how he compares to Harris and Swann

Dunno. They were pretty similar for mine, you could argue that either were more effective. But pre-Ashes expectations of them were so vastly different that Hauritz's performances appeared better and Swann's worse. England played Hauritz so, sooo much worse than Australia played Swann so it's not the fairest comparison, but I guess we can only judge them on how they did the task they were each presented with.

Originally Posted by indiaholic

Ireland on the other hand are everything that is good and just and beautiful in this world.

I'm not saying he's better than Swann or Harris, although I think he outbowled Swann in the Ashes. But to say that he's not deserving of comparison to them, or is clearly massively inferior is wrong imo.

Hmm i'd be interested to know how TBH...

Originally Posted by Matt79

And Aussie somehow got confused on the point of whether Hauritz deserved his spot ahead of the potential fourth specialist quick in the Australian team with the question of how he compares to Harris and Swann

Ahh no i didn't. I said imo Hauritz is the most accurate of the three:

Originally Posted by me

Hauritz i still think he is joke - but he no doubt has improved a great deal in 2009 & is the most accurate/economical of the three

I think the OP wanted to talk non-doosra bowling finger spinners, hence left out Harby deliberately.

Lol at the underrating of Hauritz in this thread. Someone said there are three better spinners in Australia - name them please.

I'm not saying he's better than Swann or Harris, although I think he outbowled Swann in the Ashes. But to say that he's not deserving of comparison to them, or is clearly massively inferior is wrong imo.

And Aussie somehow got confused on the point of whether Hauritz deserved his spot ahead of the potential fourth specialist quick in the Australian team with the question of how he compares to Harris and Swann

We'll never really know, tbh. Leaving out the specialist tweaker for The Oval was one of the larger selectorial bollocks that've been dropped of late. Would've been nice to see how Haurie went under the shadow of the old gasworks, but it wasn't to be. As (IIRC) North took 4 wickets with his serviceable part-time stuff I think it's fair to assume Hauritz had his moment stolen from him.

In Swann's defence, whilst he was mostly disappointing with the ball in the summer, on the decks that offered him a little (The Oval & 2nd dig at Lords) he conjoured up match-turning spells.

It's nice to see three classic finger-spinners, none of whom possess a throwsra, doing decent jobs for their sides tho. 18 months ago the conventional wisdom seemed to be that all orth(o)dox twirlers needed a wrong 'un to prosper.

The other conventional offie I had high hopes for was Ramesh Powar. Could watch him bowl all day; absolutely beautiful action. Seems to have disappeared off the radar a bit of late tho. Shame, cricket needs its lardos, IMHO.

"The PFA does not represent players when they have broken the law and been convicted on non-football matters."- Gordon Taylor in 2009 following Marlon King's release after a prison sentence for sexual assault & ABH

I think Swann is more capable of winning Test matches for his side, than Harris or Hauritz, that said he does not necessarily do his best work when people are expecting him to be a big threat on af ourth/fifth day pitch that's offering plenty for him.

Swann erally gives the ball a rip, can extract a fair bit of turn, helped with a nice bit away drift, and does bowl generally an attacking line.

Hauritz is similar in his line and the drift he gets, but probably on the whole is not as threatening, albeit a much improved bowler.

I am surprised by the success Harris has had in recent times, and has become a useful foil to the quicker bowlers. Not a big spinner, in fact spin can at times be one thing he has missing from his armoury! From his round the wicket angle, he is generally bowling at the stumps, pitching on and attempting to straighten, and sides don't have great success when they do attack him. I have been crying out for teams to get after him, but it does not appear quite easy as that, so credit to him for that.

Taking everything into account I would list them as follows, 1. Swann, 2. Hauritz, 3. Harris

If i give him any more credit i'd be over-rating him to be frank. Off all the useful/decent SA spinners that have played tests since readmisson in Symcox, Boje, Adams, Eskeen, Henderson all where better than Harris IMO. (although you can argue not much is between him and Henderson).

Harris is only better than the "utter trash duo" of Peterson, Botha.

As i said Harris has benefited in the last 3 years of being part of a 5-man attack & Smith has used him cleverly. If Kallis stops bowling & Harris has to bowl as part of 4-man attack he will be exposed.

Swan the more threatening of the three but seems to only bowl in two modes; all-out attack or all-out defence. The other two distinctly under-rated. Hauritz at least has some Aussies rating him these days, Harris seems to be universally trashed. They both put up decent, unpretentious stuff, though.

If i give him any more credit i'd be over-rating him to be frank. Off all the useful/decent SA spinners that have played tests since readmisson in Symcox, Boje, Adams, Eskeen, Henderson all where better than Harris IMO. (although you can argue not much is between him and Henderson).

I know next to nothing about Clive Eksteen and he barely played anyway so I'll gladly not comment on him; Adams was clearly pretty hopeless and not surprisingly so either, but he's a wristspinner and that applies to most of them. One could argue Symcox was > Harris but it's debateable. There's no way I'd put either Boje or Henderson as > Harris. = at best.

Whatever a "plodder" is (generally best known on here as Camel56-idiot-type terminology)... Croft was - is in fact - a quite capable fingerspin bowler, who possessed about all the tools you could ask a fingerspinner to do. Good flight, good arm-ball, the ability to fire it through flat (both as a change-up and consistently) when neccessary, and enough spin to make the ball talk on a helpful deck.

Would venture to suggest on uncovered wickets Croft - like Emburey - could easily have been fit to rank with the better England fingerspinners. Same might well apply to Swann.

Whatever a "plodder" is (generally best known on here as Camel56-idiot-type terminology)... Croft was - is in fact - a quite capable fingerspin bowler, who possessed about all the tools you could ask a fingerspinner to do. Good flight, good arm-ball, the ability to fire it through flat (both as a change-up and consistently) when neccessary, and enough spin to make the ball talk on a helpful deck.

Would venture to suggest on uncovered wickets Croft - like Emburey - could easily have been fit to rank with the better England fingerspinners. Same might well apply to Swann.

Indeed, but i'd say Croft was a slightly better off-spinner than Swann at his best though . I remember how brilliant he was when we won SRI 2001, getting some real big spin..

The other conventional offie I had high hopes for was Ramesh Powar. Could watch him bowl all day; absolutely beautiful action. Seems to have disappeared off the radar a bit of late tho. Shame, cricket needs its lardos, IMHO.

I agree. Had it not been for Harbhajan being Ganguly's favorite, Romesh would've got a nod earlier itself. His batting is much superior to Harbhajan and despite being portly he is comparable to Harby as a fielder. He is one of the rare breeds who flight it regardless of the situation.